


When Your Soul (Knows Mercy)

by mihrsuri



Category: The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Immortality, Multi, Redemption, Reincarnation, Second Chances, Stealth Crossover, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:55:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22588249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/pseuds/mihrsuri
Summary: If it were left to me, Henry Tudor I would send you to the depths of lamentation. But the Lord, the Lord is merciful - She has gifted you with another path. You will have immortality upon this earth - eternal youth, eternal prosperity and all the lovers you would wish, no matter where you may go [Henry Tudor gets everything he thought he would wish for]
Relationships: Anne Boleyn/Thomas Cromwell/Henry VIII of England
Comments: 10
Kudos: 34





	When Your Soul (Knows Mercy)

When Henry dies he expects, well he had told himself he expected heaven and Jane and the warm peace of rightness. He had believed it, held onto it. He had everything he had wished for, after all.

The angel that appears seems to confirm that. Until the Angel speaks and it sends him to his knees in fear - the voice is coldly furious, the kind of implacable celestial immortality that no one but one of the divine could possess.

“If it were left to me, Henry Tudor I would send you to the depths of lamentation. But the Lord, the Lord is merciful - She has gifted you with another path. You will have immortality upon this earth - eternal youth, eternal prosperity and all the lovers you would wish, no matter where you may go”

Henry almost smiled, but there was something in the voice of the Angel that made him stop. Made him freeze.

“You will have everything you have said you wished for Henry Tudor, for all the ages of the universe unending.....except for one small thing. You will never have children again. You will see your children but they will never know you. And there is one more thing.”

Here the Angel became so bright that Henry could not look upon him - it was as though the sun and the stars themselves stood before him, wreathed in divine flame and it stripped all illusions from him.

“Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell were innocent. They loved you and had you believed them you would have bought about a golden world, but you did not. You threw them away and for that? For that you will know them, you will see them but they will never know you, never hear you, never love you. They will be there and they will never know you.”

And then the voice of the Angel turned to him.

“But it should matter not to you, after all did you not declare that they were nothing to you? And you have been given everything you ever wanted.”

The presence faded but an echo of the voice remained to him.

(“If you ever truly repent, if you face what you have done and what could have been and bear the cost, understanding that you could lose them forever more then the curse will be broken”)

-

Henry does not watch the body that had been his being buried. He does not wish to stay in England, in truth but he finds it is true that he will prosper - he finds there are funds in his purse and moreover he finds that the person the world thinks he is is a fabulously wealthy but obscure noble who had been visiting England.

He leaves for Italy and finds a grand villa that belongs to him, beautiful women and men and all the pleasures of youth and beauty returned to him. For a time Henry even thinks he will enjoy it, that he has no need of his once Queen and Chancellor.

It lasts until he sees them for the first time and they do not know him. Anne is the beautiful daughter of a Jewish trader in cloth, Thomas a bright young artist and they are married. He sees them, glowing in their wedding clothes and they do not even look at him and do not hear him when he calls their names.

That is when he realises the bitter truth. But he still thinks it is a pain that can be buried.

The next time, the next time Henry is in Persia as a diplomat of sorts and Anne is a beloved Princess and Thomas the quiet scholar she falls in love with. Anne wears a coat of blue embroidered with silver stars and moons and flowers and braids jasmine into her hair.

They are happy, especially as Anne is with child. Henry cannot bear to be there to see the child born, the child that will never be his as well through his own folly. 

He moves on as soon as he can, trying to lose himself as he once had in the pleasures of the world. 

It does not work at all, but he manages to avoid them, at least for a time. But of course he sees them again - Thomas is a noble this time, still brilliantly competent and now living in comfort, while Anne is already his wife. They are dancing in a ballroom and Henry, Henry who has all the others in the room hanging on his every word, could have most of those present in his bed if he wished and yet and yet he only wants the two who do not see him. 

In the early 20th century they are both servants in a grand house who fall in love - Anne dreams of training as a Doctor, Thomas as a Lawyer and they passionately wish for change as they always have. Henry wonders that he had ever said that they meant nothing to him, wonders what might have been, all those centuries ago, if he had not lied to himself about what he wanted. 

In 1943 both Henry and Anne are spies and Henry cannot bear to watch them die so he flees from England yet again, tries to lose himself in New York City and finds he cannot. But it helps, for a few decades at least to be as far away as possible. 

He cannot speak to what takes him to London in the 21st century - truthfully he has not wanted to set foot in England for a long time but somehow, somehow he finds himself missing Christmas in what was once his kingdom - though the rituals have changed, it still brings him comfort, somehow. 

So Henry is wondering through the streets of London, watching the snow fall and thinks of the first Christmas he had spent with Anne - after their engagement and before she had become Queen. He, Thomas and Anne had jested and laughed and delighted in each others company and Henry had given them gifts, gifts that signalled the promise that he had so believed in then. That Anne and Thomas had trusted in him to keep. 

Let me rest, Henry thinks, let me rest Lord and let me forget. 

He sees them, then. Anne wears a warm red coat with a white hat and scarf around her neck, while Thomas is in blue. They are holding hands as they walk out of a shop - both of them carrying boxes. Henry can hear some of their conversation as they walk - they are talking about their Synagogue, about plans for a Hanukkah gathering of their families and then about whether Christmas Day will be ‘movies at the movie theatre or movies at home’ 

It’s utterly and completely beautiful and Henry stops, unable to move away from them as they stand off to the side of the street for a moment and then follows them into a bakery where they both buy a hot chocolate and tease each other gently about their pastry selections. He cannot help but sigh.

And then, then two pairs of eyes turn towards him and for a moment, just a moment, they see him. 

The pain and fear sears him.

**Author's Note:**

> -Title from a Demi Lovato song (Heart By Heart)  
> -The Angel is Aziraphale from Good Omens (he was especially fond of Anne and also so was Crowley and Crowley is particularly sad so Aziraphale is Extra Furious)


End file.
